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Re: [school-discuss] Fwd: A Landmark Announcement

Perhaps 'hedge your bets' is a better strategy than 'boycott Novell' in your case. Most people, even non-technical ones, will agree when you say that many/most companies that allied with MS eventually get absorbed or stabbed in the back--in either case, they go away. Considering all that MS has said about Linux, there's no reason to consider this deal will be any different. Perhaps it won't turn out bad for Novell. But what your school needs to be doing is thinking strategically, such that if Novell does end up in a bad position as a result of this deal, your school and its technology plan aren't in a position that suddenly becomes very expensive. The diversity of Linux distributions is one of its strengths. If one vendor does something that isn't in your best interest, you can move to another fairly easily. If MS or Apple do something that's good for them at your expense, and your technology plan is built around them, it's difficult to change, meaning you sigh, and then increase class size so you can eliminate a teacher to pay for MS's or Apple's price increase. The point is to be thinking NOW about where you want to be in two or three years so that if Novell does collapse, you can say "Good thing we made those changes back in 2006 such that Novell's demise/MS's tightening restrictions/price increase doesn't affect us." One could argue that this MS/Novell deal gives you a real opportunity to convince your colleagues of the danger of your 'full investment in Novell' and the need to move away from such mono-culture, as it provides you with an occasion to remind people of how these deals usually play out, and how your school should take steps to make sure it's not on the short end of such an agreement.

Petre

Michael Bendorf wrote: 
the other penny is for maintenance


I am a bit confused. At CCUSD#1 we have a full investment in Novell as our NOS and have MS desktops - how would I make the suggestion to "Boycott Novell"?


As a personal user running Fedora and sharing Ubuntu with less Linux savvy persons wanting to get away from M$ I understand, but I have to question what this will mean from a district in the situation I find here.

I have to put it out there that I am personally a peon when it comes to these decisions and have only been in the Ed. Tech. scene for about 18 months. I love it when my opinion is asked for though, and so have been thinking about what I would do if it were my choice.

Michael T. Bendorf
Technology Assistant
Intermediate School
shane@xxxxxxxxxxx 11/07/06 8:38 PM >>>
Simple. Boycott Novell. They will go the way of SCO.

This is MS going after Oracle's deep pockets, and Novell gets to knock out all competition and secure an up-front payment as well as ownership of the linux market, which MS will allow to remain a small healthy percentage to stave off antitrust allegations- A nice little lapdog for MS, that they actually derive revenue from in perpetuity, nice.

MS propped up SCO against IBM, but the sticker was IBM has never distributed linux and Novell claimed its own rights over the contested "IP"
. SCO has no case, and is rotting on the vine. Even if Novell gets to finally see SCO in court, there will be no SCO left. Novell has been seen by the community as a defender, and has steadily caught up to and surpassed the leader redhat in terms of enterprise linux offerings. Honestly, SLED was probably the best enterprise distro out there, imho.

Now, days after Oracle threatens to not only destroy redhat and SuSE in the enterprise space with its Unbreakable Linux and support (including indemnification from ip litigation - $chaching$), but actually threaten MS and its trainwreck Vista in the enterprise (imagine not having to upgrade all of your hardware just to run a slightly more secure OS), we hear about this Novell-MS partnership - expect them to go after the first big Oracle customer, and then when Oracle steps in on their behalf - watch out.

That's my two cents, but I only get a penny for my thoughts, so where does the other penny go?

-shane




On Tuesday 07 November 2006 09:18, *********|Praveen wrote:
2006/11/7, Michael Bendorf <bendorfm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>: 
So, I'm sure that some on this list run a Novell network (as we do at
Carlinville CUSD#1).
I am in wanting of comments/questions/concerns/opinions on this.

Novell-Microsoft: What They Aren't Telling
You<http://technocrat.net/d/2006/11/2/9945>
By Bruce Perens

"There are two significant announcements. First, that Novell and Microsoft
are entering into a patent cross-license, and second, that Microsoft is
promising not to assert its patents against individual non-commercial
developers. The bad part is that this sets Mirosoft up to assert its
patents against all commercial Open Source users. There are also some
little bonuses for Microsoft, like Novell will help Microsoft turn back the
Open Document Format and substitute something Microsoft controls.

When we say "commercial", it's interesting to note that there are really
few non-commercial users: people who only use their computer for a hobby.
Buying something on a web site, for example, is a commercial use. Most
individuals use their computers in some aspect of making their livelihood.
There will now be a Microsoft-approved path for such people to make use of
Open Source, an expensive subscription to Novell SuSe Linux that costs as
much or more than Microsoft Windows and that comes with a patent license."
Full article at http://technocrat.net/d/2006/11/2/9945